This invention relates to a device for atomizing liquid paint, comprising an atomizer bell which is rotatable about a central axis and which has an axial opening at its base and an axially forwardly and radially inwardly directed profiled, annular, coaxial overflow surface whose radially inner edge is connected with the axially front edge of the opening by a profiled, annular, coaxial transition surface which forms the axially front boundary to the base; and comprising a coaxial, centrally perforated deflecting member which lies with the centre of its axially near surface facing the coaxial front end of the opening of the bell while its radially outer edge cooperates with the bell to form an annular gap which interrupts the transition from an axially front surface of the deflecting member to the overflow surface of the bell, the transition surface of the bell cooperating with the axially rear surface and the radially outer surface of the deflecting member to form a chamber in the form of a gap between the bell and the deflecting member, which chamber has only localised interruptions formed by axial spacers between the bell and the deflecting member.
In devices of this type disclosed in De-U-82 24 329 and DE-A-35 09 874, the base of the transition surface of the bell and the axially opposite rear surface of the deflecting part facing said transition surface are flat and the part of the transition surface of the bell which forms the gap as well as the radially opposite marginal surface of the deflecting member are conically formed in such a manner that the gap between the bell and the deflecting member has the form of an air chamber which is trapezoidal in axial section passing through the centre apart from the interruptions formed by the spacers, which trapezoidal chamber is alternately filled with paint and liquid rinsing agent for removing paint residues when the paint is to be changed or for performing the final cleaning of the device when the device is to be put out of action for some time.
In the device known from De-U-82 24 329, metal pigments in the liquid paint are liable to agglomerate in the gap between the bell and the deflecting member from which they cannot be adequately removed simply by rinsing out the residues of paint. The device known from DE-A-35 09 874 overcomes this disadvantage by providing localized anomalies in the width of the gap which automatically ensure that deposits from the paint to be atomized, in particular agglomerations of metal pigment or other pigment deposits, cannot settle in the gap or at least will be rinsed out. It has been found in practice, however, that even with such anomalies distributed in a particular manner in the gap, deposits of paint still accumulate and are difficult to remove.